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Today is the official first day of fall. The signs of summer’s end have been around for a while now though. The days are shorter, the air is crisper, leaves are turning and falling from the trees. As sad as I am to see summer end, autumn has always seemed like the season of change for me. A time for new beginnings.

As the Roman philosopher, Seneca The Younger said (…or maybe it was the 90’s band, Semisonic…), “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

So before we completely close the door on summer and celebrate a new beginning, here’s one last look at some of Summer 2014’s finest moments.

As soon as the kids were out of school, we kicked off summer with a trip to the Water Color and Seaside on the Gulf of Mexico. These white sands and emerald waters will always feel like home.

Smile.

Familiar walk in Seaside.

Summer Concert Series at the Seaside Amphitheater with live music from The Dirty Guv’nahs

Soaking in the view of Nantucket harbor before dinner.

Madaket…everyone’s favorite beach!

Great Point Light

Summer memories being made with the best of friends.

Company of the Cauldron

Auld Lang Syne in ‘Sconset is one of the oldest (and sweetest) houses on Nantucket and was built around 1675.

The breathtaking beauty of Maine is captured in these photos of rugged shores marked with classic lighthouses overlooking boat-filled harbors.

The photos were taken by my incredibly talented friend Katie O’Reilly on her recent weekend trip to The Pine Tree State. The collection showcases how summer in New England can be the holiday of your dreams with a series of iconic photographs. From St. Ann’s Church near the Bush’s estate on Walker Point to the majestic vistas of Acadia National Park, Katie’s photos already have me planning my own weekend escape back to the rocky shores of Maine. You can see more from her trip at her website and on Instagram. While you are there, check out stunning collections from her other travels.

On this summer night in New England as I tuck my exhausted but happy children into their beds, I am inspired by these iconic scenes and can’t help but channel John Irving by saying, “Goodnight, you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.”

I recently came across a wonderful article in the back of Southern Living written by the Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Rick Bragg. Reading the article was remarkable because it was on the back page of the magazine and my two kids never let me get all the way through a magazine these days! But Mr. Bragg’s article was also special because it struck such a nostalgic cord in me.

Rick writes of a childhood filled with endless summer days that seemed to last forever. Especially days that were spent jumping in puddles, chasing frogs and squishing bare toes through mud. He described those days as a period in his life when “time came in big buckets.”

Oh how I wish I could get my hands on one of those buckets again. Even during the longest days of summer when the sun is still peeking through the trees at 8:00 pm, the days seem to fly by at lightening speed.

I still remember my childhood filled with hot, humid Southern days stretching to fit in most everything I wanted to do. My brother and I rode bikes down country roads, caught fireflies in Mason jars, and played make-believe in the woods using water-logged branches floating in the creek and pretending the pliable pulp was “chicken” for our imaginary chicken salad. (Obviously, my foodie inclinations were formed early.)

Another favorite pastime was running outside at the end of an afternoon shower and shaping balls of wet South Carolina dirt (and probably a little red clay) into mud pies. My muddy little hands produced impressive numbers of these earthy delicacies. More than giving me more dirt under my nails than one bath could cure, these soggy moments formed memories of days spent with just my imagination and, on some summer days, an unexpected surprise or two.

I can still vividly see my mom coming home from her weekly hair salon appointment (looking so pretty with her 1970’s up-do) and bringing around a bright blue wading pool for my brother and me. It was heaven in the back yard. Our surprise even came with a little slide built in. We couldn’t wait to throw the water hose in our new plastic pool and find a way to escape the scorch of the sun. We somehow even managed to float on our backs in just a few inches of water.

These days, my children and I still catch fireflies in Mason jars just like I did so long ago (except we run a rigorously enforced catch-and-release program). And family days are still filled with riding bikes, running in the rain, walking barefoot through the mud and creating their own little make-believe universe. Whether they know it or not, Kate and Jack are now creating their own endless summers to share with their children. Maybe the collection of all their memories will come along with one of those big buckets of time that Rick, you and I long for in the August sunset of yet another fading summer.

For one weekend in June, Madison Square Park in New York City is transformed into a 6.23 acre backyard barbecue party. And for the 11th year, Danny Meyer and his Union Square Hospitality Group along with Southern Living lined up the best pit masters from all over the country to show off their mouth-watering versions of barbecue. These guys loaded their trailers and rigs with their smokers and pits and drove hundreds of miles to set up shop in Madison Square Park for two days.

The smoke from all that bbq drifted blocks away and drew everyone in like moths to a flame except in our case it was hungry southerners looking for a little comfort. This past weekend was the perfect time for my southxnortheast world to come together. It was awesome to see some old friends from down south like the folks from Southern Foodways Alliance and even show a little SFA love by sporting one of their tattoos. (My 9-yr-old was very proud.)

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q from Decatur, AL, took home the prize in my book with Chris Lilly’s ridiculously good pork sandwich. Apparently everyone else at the event on Saturday thought so too. The fast-pass line was longer than the regular line. There was no such thing as a shortcut.

And of course, our buddy from Tito’s Vodka, Matt Purpura, had the perfect lime-jalapeño infused concoction to wash down all that barbecue.

My friends at Jim ‘N Nick’s never disappoint and can even make a saltine cracker look good.

The take away here is if you aren’t a carnivore, this was probably not the place for you.

So when we got too full to put another bite of BBQ into our mouths, we walked over to the IKEA tent where the best of the best like Mike Lata, Chris Hastings, Sean Brock, John Currence, Joseph Lenn, and Ashley Christensen offered a little variation on the meat theme and shared recipes and ideas on everything from cocktails to oysters.

The Block Party was a chance for these masters of ‘cue to shine and show off their unique style of barbecue. The methods these mostly southern pit masters used were as old as the south itself. They took pride in their heritage and said, “That’s how my daddy did it. And his daddy before him.” As my fellow southxnortheaster put it: “It is so nice to find people up here who know the difference between barbecuing and grilling.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. Until next year…